Northants County League side, Northampton Town pulled off a shock by defeating Premier League Peterborough Northern Star in their County Cup semi-final, so we had a chat with Cobblers’ manager, George Joyce.
SK: What was the feeling around the club ahead of the tie?
GJ: The feeling around the club was positive leading up to the tie as we have just come off the back of a couple of good results beating Rothwell 5-0 the week before in the League Cup and the players were upbeat and relishing the challenge of the Peterborough Northern Star game. Pretty much everyone had written us off for the tie, so we took this as motivation for the game and we went out there with nothing to lose.
SK: Can you tell us about the goals and when they came?
GJ: The game went into half time at 0-0 with no real clear cut chances in the first half for either side apart from a couple of corners for both teams. We took the lead in the 53rd minute after our Striker Cloe Woodward (pictured below) broke the offside trap to race clean through from the half way line to find herself one on one with the Northern Star keeper and slotted the ball into the bottom left hand corner. The second goal came in the 90th minute after a cross had found substitute Cesca Partridge free in the box from 12 yards, who volleyed into the roof of the net to seal the 2-0 win.
SK: What was the most enjoyable aspect of beating a Premier League side?
GJ: The most enjoyable part is that we went toe to toe with Northern Star for the full 90 minutes and we battled hard throughout as we knew it was going to be a tough match. Pretty much everyone else had written us off and thought it would be a case of how many goals we could restrict Peterborough Northern Star to, however this wasn’t the case and was pleasing to see so many messages via twitter, facebook, email and text from either other clubs, or other managers and players, congratulating us on the win!
SK: Do you fancy your chances to lift the Northants Cup now?
GJ: In the final we face Moulton who were in our league last season but now compete in the division above and if we turn up and play like we did in yesterday’s win, we feel we have a chance of beating anyone on the day and go into the final in a confident mood!
SK: What of the rest of your season, how has it been going?
GJ: The rest of the league season has had its ups and downs with only having now played 6 league games as a couple of teams have folded, so we currently sit in fourth place but we are looking to challenge for second place if we can win our games in hand. So far this season we have won 2, drawn 3 and lost 1 of the 6 games. We are looking to finish this season on a high with the Cup Final and potential League Cup success after beating Rothwell 5-0 the previous weekend to set up a quarter final tie with Kettering Town in two weeks time. The goal now for us is to get as many points on the board as we can and see where we end up come the end of the season.
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